Yes, I agree. My local Tesco in London had fresh fish, meat, deli, etc, counters when I first moved into the area. Two years later, all the fresh counters had gone to be replaced by rows and rows of ready-meals. According to Tesco, the demographics of the area (Kennington) told them that no one cooked from scratch any longer.

That's one of the saddest things in the world.
Half a country's culture is in it's food.

I think you may be on to something here with turnover vs freshness. We use Manor Supermarché a lot in Vevey. Huge selection of fresh veg and meat and we hardly ever get stuff with mould and freshness is excellent. But one thing I've noticed with this and other Manor stores in the Canton is that they have big self service restaurants in the store which offer good quality lunches at reasonable prices. The restaurant is packed at lunch time. I reckon they use up the produce for the restaurants as it approaches the end of it's shelf life and top up the supermarket with fresh stuff. Win win strategy. We have a big coop superstore nearby which does the same. Its produce is much fresher than the smaller local coops.

Ditto for my local Manor. The restaurant connection hadn't occurred to me but it does make sense. Whereas I do well there out of half price meat which is nearing its sell by date, cut price fruit and vegetables don't feature, and I very rarely have a problem with their quality.

In the smaller Migros/Coop/Denner shops the vegetables and fruit can sometimes be ropey.

One other thing. I don't think Swiss tolerate low quality or necessarily poor choice. One of the things I like about life here is people seem to care about food. Walk around a big supermarket in CH and compare the UK. One huge difference you'll notice here is the absence of pre-prepared "ready meals" that fill whole sections of Uk stores. It seems to me people here are still into real food - made from scratch with simple ingredients of pretty good quality. I was back in the UK recently and called into the local ASDA. On offer were two chickens for GBP 5.00. How and where they were produced for that price beats me but I can live without that kind of choice.

Swiss food and quality? Obviously you don't mean the cuisine, you can judge a countries cuisine by the number of foreign restaurants in its own country and the number of restaurants its successfully exported. So you can't be talking about that. Though you did say the Swiss and quality...

OK, so you mean the ingredients. Once again the Swiss really do have poor quality ingredients in COOP and Migros. You know this because the food rots so quickly. For those that come from the US and UK who are used to fruit and veg that lasts longer but tastes of water its because of iradiation I suppose you can see this as a positive. However - those of us with experience or from Italy, Netherlands or (last five years - Germany), they have fresh fruit and veg, it is tasty, it isn't irradiated but amazingly, it is not rotten either. In Germany the food will often last about 2 or 3 times as long as Swiss food before it rots (yes, a whole five-to-seven days).

Once again, at least the two major supermarkets in CH buy fruit and veg past its best (or too late to be at its best) and push this onto the discerning Swiss consumer who is lead to believe, through their mindset and advertising that they are getting quality. It would appear a few people here are also convinced... oh, to be more local than the locals..

I suspect, if you are talking about food, you are not talking about ZH?

That was my assumption as well and why I adjusted my shopping habits after moving here (e.g., shop more frequently, buy smaller quantities). There are a couple of local family-run shops nearby and, of course, the market at Bürkliplatz on Tues and Fri which all offer great produce.

Overall, I have no real complaints about the produce I buy here -- except for the prices of some things.

THIS IS FINE BUT OTHER COUNTRIES DON'T ROUTINELY IRRADIATE THEIR FOOD AND STILL IT DOESN'T GO OFF IN THE STORE / TEN MINUTES AFTER YOU HAVE PAID FOR IT..

Fresh food produced abroad will have huge refridgerated trucks waiting to collect and drive to the nearest airport. Israeli fruit, for the export market,
arrives in Amsterdam or London within 24 hours of being picked.

It tastes mega fresh, but costs a fortune not only in cash but in carbon footprint etc.

Spare a thought for what 'choice' actually means.

Shop local.

There is undoubtedly a balance that needs to be found, however we are definitely not at that balancing point with the current standard of Migros and Coop fruit and Veg.

Mr Happy: I suppose your handle/id was chosen before you moved to CH? It makes me sort of sad that so many aspects of Switzerland make you so disgruntled (and you're even shouting now) and there doesn't seem to be much to do about it except wait for another relocation.

If you don't like the quality speak with your wallet and shop somewhere else. We buy fresh produce from the local sources and never had a problem with it going off after "10 minutes".

I agree, the problem however, is that, for example, sweet potatoes don't grow in Switzerland. So farmers markets etc are no good. Ditto - I believe - aubergines (egg plant) and a ton of other stuff. Speaking personally, I shop in DE or AT when I can and pick up veg then but I'd rather COOP and Migros actually bought decent food for us..

It is the shelf like of the bread in the Coop and Migros and Volg which really annoys me.
Now I go to Aldi or the Turkish shops- the bread is maybe full of preservatives, but is cheaper, tastes better (to our family) and is still edible and a bit soft, 5 days later.

You cannot be serious with this one - fresh Swiss bread generally is amongst the best you will find anywhere (Aldi bread doesn't count as Swiss IMHO). Just had a family of Scots staying and the last thing they did was to raid Migros for 3 or 4 Kg of the stuff to take back with them.

Swiss food and quality? Obviously you don't mean the cuisine, you can judge a countries cuisine by the number of foreign restaurants in its own country and the number of restaurants its successfully exported.

I would guess that this is more to do with the higher % of foreigners bringing their own tastes and cultures into the country. It's the same in the UK, a huge variety of foreign restaurants.

For those that come from the US and UK who are used to fruit and veg that lasts longer but tastes of water its because of iradiation I suppose you can see this as a positive. However - those of us with experience or from Italy, Netherlands or (last five years - Germany), they have fresh fruit and veg, it is tasty, it isn't irradiated but amazingly, it is not rotten either. In Germany the food will often last about 2 or 3 times as long as Swiss food before it rots (yes, a whole five-to-seven days).

In conventional farming, synthetic fertilisers make the plant absorb a maximum amount of water in minimum time, often resulting in large but tasteless fruit. I don't think it has anything to do with irradiating the produce.

In organic farming, by contrast, the plant has more time to absorb vital minerals and trace elements which make the fruit (or vegetable) more flavoursome and prolongs its shelf life.

You cannot be serious with this one - fresh Swiss bread generally is amongst the best you will find anywhere (Aldi bread doesn't count as Swiss IMHO). Just had a family of Scots staying and the last thing they did was to raid Migros for 3 or 4 Kg of the stuff to take back with them.

Whilst I would say taste is a different subject (I did say fruit and veg - fresh). I would argue that some Swiss bread is excellent, a load I got in Disentis was amazing, likewise the bacon bits in the funny shaped round loaf is quite nice (read - bad for you). But the prize for the best bread in the world has to go to the french. This gives me no pleasure as I am English but fairs fair.

I'm really pleased the croissants in France are 'better' than even the marvellous one's mentioned in another thread on this topic.

I'm glad to be 'limited' in my choice of mega-fresh products of every variety; even when shopping in organic stores / small independents, I shy away from food flown from Chile, Kenya, Iran. (Oh ok, I like Iranian pomegranites Mangos from Pakistan are pretty fragrant too, but it ain't right buying them...).

Guinness in Zurich can never be Guinness in Dublin, and that's the point.

How on Earth can we expect to have Fresh! fresh products from all points on the compass when they have to travel so far and still be tasty and last more than a few days?

= only if we're prepared to pay for them.

Anyone prepared to pay more for their food?

We oughtta, but we won't. The consumers are to blame for not wanting to pay real prices. Look to the UK and how Te$co have completely wiped out the independent market and resultingly fair deals for the producers and farmers. (Any idea how much the Chilean wine grower makes on that bottle of Sauvignon?) Choice is a luxury.

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Once again, at least the two major supermarkets in CH buy fruit and veg past its best (or too late to be at its best) and push this onto the discerning Swiss consumer who is lead to believe, through their mindset and advertising that they are getting quality. It would appear a few people here are also convinced... oh, to be more local than the locals..

I totally agree. The blind assumption that a product must be of a higher quality purely because of the Swiss flag seems to be embedded within the culture.

We oughtta, but we won't. The consumers are to blame for not wanting to pay real prices. Look to the UK and how Te$co have completely wiped out the independent market and resultingly fair deals for the producers and farmers. (Any idea how much the Chilean wine grower makes on that bottle of Sauvignon?) Choice is a luxury.

I think that you have this the wrong way round. Te$co and the like are ruthless when it comes to their pricing strategy. They decide on a particular product that they would like to sell and they name the price. The suppliers then have to deliver at that price. The consumer will naturally go for the cheapest option but it's the large retailers that are causing the price wars. As a result, the consumer expects things to be cheaper.